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Ghulam sarwar khan aviation minister briefing on initial plane crash in parliament |
Last month, on 22 May a tragic accident happened which
claimed the life of 97 innocent people travelling from Lahore to Karachi to meet
their relatives and celebrate ‘Eid with their Loved ones. It happened a few days
after relaxation in countrywide Lockdown and reopening of domestic flight
operation. An initial investigation report claims that it was a human error by
the pilot and air traffic control.
The plane crashed by hitting a building in the Model colony in
suburbs of Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. Only two passengers survived
the crash.
The incident took media by a strike, many speculations were
made by the different analyst, Former flight experts and independent newscasters.
Some said there was a technical fault in-plane, others said the plane was too
old to be allowed to be airborne, some tried to put blame on the martyred pilot
as he can’t defend himself as it is the easy way out and save many individuals
from taking responsibility for the Crash.
What can we expect from government, it followed the footstep of their predecessor and announced small cash reimbursement for the
families of those martyred on that cursed day but will that bring them back! Will
that save their families from a life long-suffering! No definitely Not.
This will only end if those individuals whose heedlessness caused
such a painful incident are brought to justice and relieved from their role in
our national airline which was a pride of Pakistan in recent past. The
incompetent administration did not lead as down as the tempered the facts as we
expected and initiated a blame game by claiming human error as the reason for
plane crash.
His Highness, The Aviation Minister Mr Ghulam Sarwar Khan
presented the initial report in front of our esteemed Parliament house claiming
that the officials on the flight failed to follow protocols. He also said that
pilots were distracted as they were talking about coronavirus.
If we agree to this claim how can such professionally the trained individual who is responsible for the life of 100 passengers on the
flight can be distracted. Is there a lapse in their professional education, are
they not trained to be focused on their job, are they not worthy of being given
an opportunity to be part of our national Airline or PIA as a whole has failed
the trust of Nation?
Initial Findings
Flight Pk8303 (Airbus A320), Run by Pakistan international
Airlines, flown by Captain Sajjad Gul with the help of Co-Pilot Mr Usman Azam
was en route from Lahore to Karachi.
The esteemed minister claimed that there was no technical fault
on the basis of data collected from Digital Flight Data Recorder(DFDR) and
Cockpit Voice Recorder(CVR) decoded in the presence of foreign experts.
He added pilot initially failed to deploy landing gear of
plane which cause scraping of the runway before it took off again. As he tried to
attempt a second landing the Air traffic control failed to inform the pilot that
engines of the plane are badly damaged.
The report claims that pilot was overconfident as when
control tower asked to increase the height of the plane he said: “I’ll manage”. The
complete report will be presented to the house in one year which will contain
all recordings of the incident.
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Karachi plane crash picture |
The investigation is being led by Air commodore Usman Ghani
while an 11-member committee from Airbus manufacturer of Airbus A320 visited
the site of the crash and offered technical support for the investigation.
He also claimed that the government is taking action against the
rogue pilots as the initial investigation claims that out of 860 active pilots
262 pilots did not event took their exams themselves. He added 40pc of pilots
were found to be having fake degrees and Licenses and were not hired on merit.
Is this not playing with the lives of our citizens!
Government has identified 54 such pilots and have issued a show-cause notice to 24 such individuals while 9 confessed they are unqualified.
On-Board Situation:
Many media outlets released an audio conversation between
air traffic control and pilot before he attempted second landing. In which pilot
is heard saying that the plane has “Lost Engines”.
The final words of the captain of Flight PK8303 were
“mayday, mayday, mayday” after air traffic control queried about landing by
asking are they going to carry out a belly landing?
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flight radar data showing last moment of flight |
One of the surviving passengers Mr Muhammad Zubair released a statement that there was 10-15 minutes’ gap between the first landing attempt and a plane crash. “No-one was aware that the plane was going to crash; they were flying the plane in a smooth manner,” he said.
PIA claims that the plane was added to the fleet in 2014 and
recently passed its airworthiness inspection last November.
Minister said that pilots were discussing the deadly coronavirus
as their families were affected by the pandemic.
History of Plane Crashes in
Pakistan:
Pakistan has got a good track of such accidents as they
happen quite frequently and we as a nation also forget those incidents so easily and
don’t force those who rest in the house of power to take strict action and so that
we can avoid such things in future.
In 2010, Airblue a private airline owned by ones in the
house of parliament got its aeroplane crashed near Islamabad, Claiming the life of
all 152 people on board. It is mentioned as the deadliest crash in the history of
Pakistan but we did not learn any lesson from it.
In 2012, A Boeing 737-200 crashed due to bad weather as it
was trying to land in Rawalpindi. 121 passengers were martyred along with six
crew members. The plane belonged to the fleet of Bhoja Air.
In 2016, Another plane of PIA burst into flames while
travelling from Northern Pakistan to Islamabad claiming 47 lives, a famous
religious personality was among them, Mr Junaid Jamshed
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path of flight pk-8303 |
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